Minds In the Gutter

English Kills CSO Wetland

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 08:20:30 +0000

Our proposal is to create a subsurface wetland system, which would be designed similarly to a tub or dam. The wetland would be self contained and framed within the confines of the East Branch of Newtown Creek extending as far out as the current floatables boom. The proposal wetland area would be 200 feet wide and 1,000 feet long and involve the construction of a 20 feet high retaining wall and the placement of approximately 10 feet of fill material over the site.

The primary goal of this proposal is to minimize the volume of wastewater discharged through the CSO outfalls NC-083 and NC-019 (total: 586,700,000 gallon per year). Considering that for every gallon per day of greywater produced, 1 cubic foot of artificial wetland is required to mitigate, 1,607,397 cubic feet of wetland total would be required to process the average daily load. However the outfall site is constrained by the scale of possible intervention and can only accommodate an area of approximately 800,000 cubic feet of constructed wetland. If we take into account the improvements in point source stormwater capture that will be implemented throughout the Sustainable Stormwater Management Plan, they will lead to a reduction in CSO discharge volumes at this site over time. Therefore this particular proposal would be potentially adequate if designed to only handle 50% of the annual outfall volume.

This post was submitted by Alexa Fabrega and Patrick Wickman.

Heckscher Park

Geoffrey Dyck and Claudia Ibaven — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 16:11:56 +0000

Heckscher Park, a mostly concrete space in Bushwick, Brooklyn, was the focus of our team’s project. Distilling some of the park’s key issues – underutilization, poor connectivity, superfluous fencing, few trees, and inefficient storm water drainage – we came up with a series objectives, ultimately leading to three overarching recommendations. We propose that certain measures of (1) ground transformation, (2) roof implementation, and (3) fence adaption, will create a better sense of place, certainly, but also help mitigate CSOs more effectively.

This post was submitted by Geoffrey Dyck and Claudia Ibaven.

The Flushing Community

admin — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 16:36:06 +0000

This design took us figuratively, proposing a way to get people thinking about stormwater and the pollution it triggers when it matters most. Connecting.nyc seeks to organize a “Flushing Community” (starting with Flushing, Queens…of course) to stop pollution at its source by creating awareness of the consequences of flushing during periods of rain, when combined sewer overflow delivers the contents of your toilet bowl directly to your local waterway.

ARUP – East River Waterfront

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 15:53:58 +0000

The image depicts a proposed Rainwater Harvesting System for the East River Waterfront development which utilizes runoff from the FDR drive as a resource for irrigation of the park vegetation.

The project client is NYCEDC, and the rendering used as a background is courtesy of SHoP Architects.

ERW RWH.pdf (198 KB)

This post was submitted by Vincent Lee.

ARUP

admin — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 21:50:17 +0000

Recognizing the city’s capacity for change, ARUP developed a phased approach to bring our stormwater system from passive conveyance into active resource. Starting today, in “Phase 0”, the design rolls out on Chambers St. from Centre St. to Hudson River in lower Manhattan, through Phase 1:Porous City, Phase 2:Botanical City” and finally Phase 3:Shared City.

dlandstudio

admin — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 21:39:06 +0000

The Sponge Park™ plan from dlandstudio proposes a “strategy of urban stitching, connecting the public and private lands adjacent to the water, to create a continuous esplanade with recreational spaces” spanning the Gowanus Canal. This design calls attention to the complex site control aspect of stormwater management.

Robin Key Landscape Architecture

admin — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 21:33:11 +0000

Robin Key Landscape Architecture selected Carmine Street as their Minds in the Gutter site for its historical hydrologic significance to the island of Manhattan. An overlay of a 1609 Townsend MacCoun map of Manhattan reveals Minetta Creek as it once flowed south and west along the modern day Carmine Street eventually entering a tidal wetland on the banks of the Hudson River.

Minetta Creek Revisited aims to restore elements of the natural hydrological system that once existed on Carmine Street. Using a matrix of load bearing modular structures that create voids for uncompacted soils below sections of the sidewalk and street, rainwater is captures, filtered and recharged locally.

W Architecture and Landscape Architecture

admin — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 21:13:37 +0000

W Architecture and Landscape Architecture identifies the underutilized street ends along 25% of the city’s shoreline as an opportunity to apply their prototypical “marine streets”, a new edge typology that would mitigate both the upland urban runoff and climatic tidal surges.

Brooklyn Greenroof

admin — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 21:10:51 +0000

Brooklyn Greenroof proposes retrofitting a percentage of sidewalks with a permeable patchwork of cobbles and various patterned steel grates. With almost 700 million square feet of sidewalk surface in NYC, modifying just 25% of the city’s sidewalk area could capture three hundred million gallons of water annually.

eDesign Dynamics for Sustainable South Bronx

admin — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 21:08:17 +0000

In collaboration with Sustainable South Bronx and Drexel University, eDesign Dynamics designed this street tree pit to capture 100 cubic feet of runoff, the quantity of runoff that flows by this gutter during a 0.25 inch storm. Water that has entered the tree pit will spread out virtually unrestricted to cover the entire planting area, allowing for maximum infiltration and evaporation.